Penitentiary Era-1790 To 1825 Mass Prison Analysis

Between 1700 and 1900 a system familiar to our eyes emerged as a result of important changes. The 1800s very harsh and a lot of crime was done in that time. The laws, punishment and jail were similar, also very different from today's. In the 1800s the punishment was much more survivor and stick to it more than now. If you lived back in that time, it was usual to walk the streets and you see a hanging happening. This showing the cruelty and none caring of the people and how harsh the punishment was.

Bruce Western’s, Punishment and Inequality in America, discusses the era of the “Prison Boom” that occurs from 1970-2003—when incarceration rates climbed almost five times higher than they had been in the twentieth century—while stating the effects and consequences that mass imprisonment created within the United States penal system. By discussing the disparities of incarceration between sex, age, race and education level, and how post-incarceration affects opportunities such as marriage and high-waged employment. Western provides an analysis of how the risk of incarceration accumulates over an individual’s lifespan.

When it comes to mass incarceration, the United States is at the top of the list when it comes to the highest prison numbers in the world. When I first heard of mass incarceration, I did not know much about it. I would have also never compared it to the Jim crow laws that existed into the early and mid 1900s. Michelle Alexander does a good Job outlining the parallels between Jim crow laws and current day mass incarceration. In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander analyzes the thirteenth amendment. The thirteenth amendment states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (The

The concept of the prison as a house of punishment and a place where criminals would be segregated from society is one that emerged later. After the American Revolution, the core social and political climate began to change. Americans began to question the extent to which the death penalty was being issued (Lynch, n.d.). Values, social norms, and political philosophies also changed, and so too did the demographics of the nation. The transformations in American society during the early modern and modern eras led to a transformation of the physical form of prisons and also "their function and their place in American consciousness," (Lynch, n.d.).

Throughout the years, the use of imprisonment has varied, along with its influences of society. It is thought that although prisons have been around since the thirteenth century, prisons as we know them now to be have only been around for the last three centuries. The first uses of prisons were not seen as a form of punishment instead they were used as a way of making people do something. People would be held in prison until they paid their debts, or awaiting trial and then leading up to their sentence. McGowen (1995) suggests that from the early 1700s ‘bridewells’ a house of correction have existed, however at that time being used merely for vagrants and drunks. At the end of the sixteenth century there was a shift in punishment to imprisonment, along with this came a new, more humane idea of reform. Criminals would spend their days of prison carrying out hard labour. However after the American Revolution, imprisonment took a step back and there was another change. There was mass overcrowding within the prison service and although the death penalty was still being used it was a symbol of the power of the state. Therefore, an everyday way of dealing with offenders would be transportation to the colonies, being either Australia or America.

This essay is going to show the development with four eras of the correctional system. The four eras that will be discussed with be: 1800, 1960, 1980 and 2000. For each era we will go over the description of the holding or monitoring of the offenders, the treatment and punishment of the offenders and the influences of the particular era on today’s correctional system. The conclusion will discuss the most beneficial era to the correctional system, as well as, recommendations for ways in which the current correctional system could be improved upon.

To understand the radical nature of the penitentiary movement, it is first essential to understand the ideology to which the penitentiary system was a reply. In ages past, crime was viewed largely within the paradigm of retribution. For example, the classical theorist of criminology Cesare Beccaria viewed the decision to commit or not commit a crime as a purely rational calculus. This meant that punishments had to be fairly severe as a deterrent. Criminals were not seen as fundamentally different from you or I, and 'reform' was accomplished solely by a rational calculus of pain versus pleasure. Beccaria believed "individuals possess freewill, rational manner and manipulability 名ith the right punishment or threat the criminal justice system can control the freewilled and

American prison system incarceration was not officially used as the main form of punishment in United States (U.S.) until around the 1800’s. Before that time criminals were mainly punished by public shaming, which involved punishments such as being whipped, or branded (HL, 2015). In fact, President Lincoln codified the prison incarceration system in the Emancipation Proclamation that indicated no slavery would take place in America unless a person was duly convicted of a crime (paraphrased) (White, 2015). In this era prisons were used more as a place where criminals could be detained until their trial date if afforded such an opportunity. However, one of the main problems with this idea was the fact that the prisons were badly maintained, which resulted in many people contracting fatal diseases. Yet, according to White (2015) unethical and immoral medical experiments were also conducted on inmates’ leading to health failures. Moreover, because everyone was detained in the same prisons, adolescent offenders would have to share the same living space with adult felons, which became another serious problem in that adolescent were less mature and could not protect themselves in such environments

Twentieth Century prisons have been dominated by three types. The first type is the so called “big house.” Big houses were six teared cells that house 2500 men. The second type is known as the medical model. Under the medical model inmates were subject to psychological assessments and diagnosis. The main treatments were academic and vocational training, along with therapeutic counseling. The third type was a power vacuum that was filled with inmate gang violence and interracial hatred (Bohm & Haley, 2012).

Prison System Criminals have been around for as long as humans have been on Earth. And as long as criminals have existed, as have various forms of punishments used to deal with such criminals. The favorite form of punishment now a days is the use prisons. However, many are advocating against the prison system and they have reason to.

The overall belief of the Penitentiary was that most prisoners would benefit from the incarceration experience. The penitentiary concept would remove felony offenders from normal society, and through penitence, pastoral counseling, solitude, and reasonable discipline, antisocial behaviors would be corrected. However, the system became overcrowded; prisoners had to be doubled up in their cells, thus removing the concept of solitude. Allegations of abuse and brutality arose and by the end of the Civil War, the penitentiary’s population had grown to 1,117 prisoners (Siegel & Bartollas, 2011).

In the late 1700’s, the Quakers built the Walnut Street Jail, and later, the Eastern State Penitentiary, both of which operated with solitary confinement of the prisoners to focus on penitence. This often drove prisoners mad and made them unfit to be released into society. Reformers have since changed prison practices to allow inmates to socialize,

St Helena Island is a former penal settlement located in Moreton Bay (Queensland). In operation between 1865 and 1933, it is the earliest attempt to create a reformative prison in colonial Australia. The prison complex was essentially self-sufficient and aimed to provide inmates with the opportunity for self-improvement and rehabilitation.

In 1895 once the newly designed prisons were built it saw the published Gladstone report on which it stated ‘we start from the principle that prison treatment should have as its primary and concurrent objects deterrence and reformation’. This report was then led into the 1898 prison act which saw the unifying of the ‘local and convict prison systems, introduced remission of sentence and restricted the use of corporal punishment. An emphasis on rehabilitation was a consistent part of prisons policy alongside other objectives’ (Newburn 2007).

Prison development dates all the way back to the early Roman times and even then there were forms of punishment for criminals. In today’s society we have come a long way from the Roman times with the way prisons are ran and punishments are enforced. With this development, there are two types of prison systems – Pennsylvania and Auburn. These systems have helped form the prison system today and the impact and involvement of prison labor over time.